Background: Little is known about factors associated with systemic corticosteroid (SC) use in emergency department (ED) patients with acute asthma.
Objective: To determine the patient and system factors associated with delayed use or nonuse of SCs in the ED.
Methods: We analyzed the asthma component of the National Emergency Department Safety Study. Patients with acute asthma in 62 urban EDs in 23 US states between 2003 and 2006 were identified. The primary outcome measure was the pattern of SC use in the ED, which was categorized as timely use (< or = 60 minutes), delayed use (> 60 minutes), or nonuse. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with delayed use or nonuse of SCs.
Results: A total of 2,559 of 3,798 patients with acute asthma (67.4%) received SCs. Of these, the median door-to-SC time was 62 minutes (interquartile range, 35-100 minutes), with 1,319 patients (51.5%) having delayed SC treatment. Nonuse of SCs was largely explained by markers of asthma exacerbations (never intubated for asthma, lower respiratory rate, and higher oxygen saturation). In contrast, in addition to these factors, delayed SC treatment was associated with age of 40 years or older, female sex, longer duration of symptoms, ED presentation between 8 AM and 11:59 PM, and ED with a longer average patient wait time.
Conclusions: Physicians in the ED seem to appropriately administer SCs to higher-acuity asthmatic patients; however, the additional nonmedical factors represent opportunities to improve the timeliness of SC treatment in the ED.